Accelerated Long-Term Forgetting: Development of a sensitive measure and its application to unanswered questions in forgetting research.
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McGibbon, Terence. 2023. Accelerated Long-Term Forgetting: Development of a sensitive measure and its application to unanswered questions in forgetting research.. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
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Text (Accelerated Long-Term Forgetting: Development of a sensitive measure and its application to unanswered questions in forgetting research.)
PSY_thesis_McGibbonT_2023.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (5MB) | Preview |
Abstract or Description
Accelerated Long-term Forgetting (ALF) is a disorder in which new information can be learnt and retained normally over short delays, but is then forgotten at an accelerated rate at longer delays. It was first detected in epilepsy, but has since been reported in healthy older individuals, and is a possible early marker for risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Research has been hampered by lack of a methodologically sound test with adequate sensitivity which can be used in both research and clinical settings. In the current research a novel measure, the Verbal Associative Learning and Memory Test (VALMT), was developed from an initial face-to-face test into a fully automated online test, with parameters tuned to maximise sensitivity and avoid ceiling effects. In parallel, a novel set of practical guidelines were developed to assist in experimental design to ensure ceiling effects do not influence results.
VALMT was used to investigate three topics: ALF symptoms in healthy ageing and the possibility of using ALF as a marker for those at risk of developing AD; memory performance over extended delays in the general population; the timeframe of onset of accelerated forgetting. This research showed that VALMT provides a sensitive measure of accelerated forgetting that can be used for all ages from 16 to 82, and is more sensitive than a standard clinical test (Wechsler Memory Scale Logical Memory). Testing across the lifespan indicated a gradual decline in memory performance starting in the 57-69 age band. Importantly, this research also highlighted the existence of a subset of healthy older participants who learn more slowly and forget more rapidly, and indicates the potential for this learning deficit and subsequent forgetting to be used to identify older individuals who are at risk of developing dementia, which will be of significant benefit in research and clinical practice.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Identification Number (DOI): |
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| Keywords: |
Memory, Forgetting, Accelerated forgetting, Accelerated long-term forgetting, ALF, VALMT |
| Departments, Centres and Research Units: |
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| Date: |
30 November 2023 |
| Item ID: |
34451 |
| Date Deposited: |
06 Dec 2023 16:04 |
| Last Modified: |
06 Dec 2023 16:09 |
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URI: |
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